Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature by William Cronon The essays in Uncommon Ground challenge our accepted ideas about nature and push us to a deeper understanding of the environmental implications of our views. In a lead essay that states the broad argument of the book, Cronon writes that the environmentalist goal of wilderness preservation is conceptually and politically wrongheaded. The problem is that we haven't learned to live responsibly in nature. Rather than attempting to exclude humans, environmental advocates should help us learn to live sustainably with nature.